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Friday, December 19, 2008

The Pretenders -- 2000 Miles

It might appear that I don't care for any Christmas music written within the last hundred years and I confess there aren't many popular Christmas songs I'm crazy about, but there are some. The Pretenders, 2000 Miles is one of my favorites. I'm a huge Chrissie Hynde fan and have been since I bought my first Pretenders album in 1980. I've always loved the music, but there is something about Chrissie Hynde that I admire. There aren't too many women who are singers, songwriters and guitar players and I can't think of any who've been front "men" for their bands for as long as she has. She's resilient. She's 57 and just released a new Pretenders album that rocks as hard as the first one did, from what I've heard of it. This isn't the best video in the world, but I prefer it to the one that was produced for the song. Are there any other Pretenders fans reading this?

It's not a Christmas song, but I can't resist. Middle of the Road is classic Pretenders and I can't help thinking that at the same time this video was made, I looked like any number of those girls on the dance floor with big hair and Ray Bans, doing the unfortunate 80's dance I'd almost forgotten about. There is a fair chance I'd have been wearing fingerless lace gloves, a mini skirt and short boots a la Madonna in one of the dance clubs my friends and I frequented at the time. I have no idea whether or not the ruckus in the crowd was staged or not, but I like to think it wasn't and that the band played on until the end of the song because that's just what they would have done. After reminiscing about the good old 80's, it occurred to me that this poor quality video and these fashion disasters remind me of watching old black and white footage of screaming poodle-skirted girls watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in the early sixties. Where does the time go?

Finally, this video someone took at a concert in Seattle last week! She still has it.

10 comments:

Hi Lisa! I am a huge Pretenders fan as well. One of the few shining stars of their era. And true rock n' roll, too. 2000 Miles and Middle of the Road are great songs; let's throw Ohio and Chain Gang in there too. Chrissie has such an incredible voice - maybe I should pop a CD in. Happy Holidays to you and Scott.

I'm pretty sure I couldn't have named a single Pretenders song before watching and reading here, but I have heard 2000 Miles (probably because of the radio stations that start playing Christmas music November 1) and have always enjoyed it. Just didn't know who it was or never paid attention. Thanks for sharing.

haha! My security code is "squees". Is that what you do over the Pretenders? ;-)

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